Radical Islam Takes Root in Poland

Once we had the opportunity to talk to Ewa Kaleta, a journalist of [a liberal Polish newspaper] Gazeta Wyborcza about her very liberal for a Muslim outlook on life. Today we ask why only two radicals? Are there more? To this question the journalist replies that “not everyone wants to agree to talk, despite anonymity and also that it is not a significant group among Muslims.”

This was a commentary on the widely discussed conflict regarding the Warsaw mosque on Wiertnicza Street. Taking into consideration the views of the imam of this mosque, Nezar Charif, who also supported sharia and was in conflict with the MZR, one may presume that the Mosque, which has long served the Polish Tatars, is now being taken over by extremely conservative Muslims.

Activity of Muslims with the radical views seems to have increased since the arrival of missionaries from the Islamic organisation iERA with their project „Mission Dawah”, which has started at Wiertnicza street. Although initially it seemed that these attempts to instill Salafism just fizzled out, similarly to the apettite for Polish Muslims declared by the German hate preacher Sven Lau.

„The activity of radicals seems to have increased since the arrival of missionaries from the Islamic organisation iERA to Poland.”

Kaleta, however, dispels the illusion that we are far from the global processes. In the statements of the protagonists of her story, we can find support for terrorism and the readiness to fight themselves, but most importantly vision of transformation of Poland into an Islamic country. The vision that is completely unrealistic but any attempt to implement it might cost lives. Can we still pretend that the problem does not concern us and is a delusion of people with xenophobic attitudes and that the average Pole is, as Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska describes – an islamophobe without Muslims?

Robert Biedroń, now President of Słupsk and one of the leaders of LGBT circles has chosen such tactics. When a book of professor accredited by the main Sunni Muslim university, Al-Ahzar appeared in the Czech Republic in 2014, recommending killing of homosexuals as a solution for AIDS, Biedroń did not find the time to answer our questions and Agata Chaber of Campaign Against Homophobia saw no problem in „followers of various religions living next to non-heterosexuals”.

Now the desire to kill homosexuals is expressed not only in territory of our southern neighbour but also in our country where the protagonist of Kaleta’s article, Gabriel, emphasizes that in an Islamic state Mr. Biedroń for example should be killed, so that he can’t propagate homosexuality. Surprise? The same thing was done by the ISIS, that is, the Islamic State, but following that our ears were sore from the apologists’ declarations that this monster has nothing to do with Islam.

The same punishment was recommended by popular preacher Jusuf Al-Karadawi. These penalties were referred to in the aforementioned book, which was issued by an Islamic university, keeping dialogue with Christianity and the Pope Francis on behalf of Islam. Such presumptions do not exist in a void but fall on the fertile ground – according to an ICM poll of 2016, 52% of British Muslims would like to make homosexuality illegal.

LGBT organisations may argue that making such facts known is feeding hatred, and that minorities should stick together and not to lose their heads in the inter-group fighting. One can say: until they have their heads…cut off.

To go back to radical Muslims from our backyard, the question is: do the services monitor those circles? One of the protagonists surely because he is awaiting court proceedings. But what about the others? In the West the services slowly take on not only the actual violence but also on the radicalisation and propaganda of terrorism. Should we not benefit, in Poland, from the experience of our western neighbours?